PSA

Do you have photos stored on Kodak Gallery? If so, you need to get 'em off of there this weekend:

Kodak announced yesterday it will close its Kodak Gallery website on Monday, meaning thousands of British families risk losing the digital photographs they have uploaded to the site.

Tell your friends and family, especially if you know they've got a Kodak digital camera.

Farmers Market

My friend El Capitan is bemoaning the fact that he needs to get off the packaged food and onto "rabbit food" again.  Since my last visit to the doctor, I've had to reevaluate my own eating habits, but have come up with a lunch that's not only healthy, but I look forward to every day:

Omnibabe's Yummy Summer Salad:

1 or 2 fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes, cut into chunks
3-4" piece of cucumber, quartered and sliced
A couple of green onions, sliced or a healthy handful of chopped sweet onion (Walla Walla or Vidalia)
Salt
Pepper
Feta, bleu cheese or goat cheese crumbles (or a handful of shredded cheese of your choice)
Kalamata olives
EVOO (don't be cheap -- buy a fancy-schmancy one)
Balsamic vinegar (or white balsamic)

Plus any or all of the following:

1/2 a red, yellow or orange pepper, rough chopped (or green pepper if you like 'em -- I don't)
1 small, ripe avocado, diced
Sugar snap peas, rough chopped
Thawed frozen peas
Thawed frozen corn
3-4" piece zuccini or summer squash, quartered and sliced
Handful of fresh broccoli or cauliflower, rough chopped
Chiffonade of fresh basil or oregano to taste
Handful of rinsed canned cannellini, kidney or black beans

And, if you really, really need animal protein:

1 small can of tuna packed in water, drained, or
1-2 strips cooked bacon, crumbled, or
Handful of chopped cooked chicken, or
Handful of chopped cooked turkey

NO LETTUCE!

Line a bowl with tomato, then salt and pepper to taste. Add the cukes on top, and salt/pepper again.*  Layer the rest of the veggies on top. Drizzle the whole mess with a little bit of olive and then a generous splooch of balsamic. Stir, cover and let sit for at least 15 minutes. Stir again, then garnish with a sprinkle of cheese crumbles (and a protein, if you need it -- I don't) and half a dozen olives.

This is seriously yummy stuff, which I now crave more than just about anything. I now keep a bottle of balsamic in the fridge and EVOO in the cupboard at the office and shop either the French Market at my train station, or the local farmers markets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm eating fresh, healthy and TASTY (not to mention pretty darned cheap), and I'm never hungry.
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One More Thing:

Forget the low-fat salad dressing (which generally tastes like crap and is loaded with sugar).  Apparently you need a little fat in order to absorb the good stuff in your salad.
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*The salt helps release the juices in the tomatoes and cukes and, when mixed with the EVOO and balsamic, helps to make a lovely low calorie salad dressing.

Roadside Diner

Because I love me some dudes...

Dude Cupcakes (that's an oxymoron, I know)...

... and Double Meat Dudewichs!

Mmmmmmmm!

Take a Bow

Just blasted through the last three episodes of season one of Slings and Arrows (which, by the way, is the best television show I've seen in a very long time).  I'll be drifting off to sleep and waking up to this little gem stuck firmly between the ears:



Brilliant!

Rubber-Necking

See you later, alligator!

Deer and cars collide all the time. But how often does a car get T-boned by a 12-foot alligator crossing an interstate?

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"Gator! Gator! Gator!"

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"The gator went flying, too."

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"He was real fat," said Mark Christopherson, 56.

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 Sorry, Jimbo. That article was just to rich with gatory goodness.

Drive-Bys

I'm all jazzed up because my favorite book of all time...

...has been made into a movie by Ang Lee, and will be released in November!

No trailer available yet, but the official website is gorgeous and this teaser looks awesome:



(Not sure I'm crazy about the casting of Tobey McGuire, though -- but that's just me.)
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Apparently there's an app for everything:

The cell phone came in handy again when they used an app that produces a strobe light to help rescue workers locate them.

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For those that despair of kids these days, here's some more good news:

If there's a Disney writer looking for a movie idea that'll make kids pump their fists with joy and leave parents teary-eyed, look no further than the real story of a San Clemente Little League team coached this year by kids. 

The team that couldn't find a coach, finally getting permission from the league to bring in two San Clemente High School freshmen to lead it, concluded an improbable season Saturday by winning the District 68 Tournament of Champions in improbable fashion. 

Coaches Chris Puckett, 15, and Cameron Shelley, 14, guided their crew of 12- to 14-year-olds to three straight victories in the tournament at Beebe Park in Mission Viejo, finishing with a 10-9 victory. 

This was a team that at the outset of the season drew smirks from some opponents because of its youthful coaches who look like they could be playing on the field. The team started with skeptical parents and an 0-2 record. But the players took the two teens' baseball tutelage to heart, improving to 6-4 by midseason before going on a 10-2 tear in the second half.

Well done, gentlemen!
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Ear Worm of the Day:




(This has been firmly embedded in my noggin since about 8:00 last night, and there is no sign of shaking it any time soon!)

In the Rear-View Mirror

On Father's Day, some things that remind me of my own Darling Daddy:

• The scent of classic original Chapstick, which he always carried in his right front pocket;
• Cross Pen's Classic Century pen and pencil set tucked in a smart sport coat breast pocket;
• Capper & Capper suits;
• A bowl of nuts in the shell and a nutcracker set on a hearth, next to a recliner;
• The drive from Chicago to Boston and back in a Ford Country Squire station wagon;
• Slide rules;
• Elaborate menus for home dinner parties;
• A snore that rattles the walls;
• Fried bologna or fried salami on white bread with yellow mustard;
• Church ushers;
• Grace Kelly, Veronica Lake or Julie Andrews considered a hottie;
• Cotton handkerchiefs, freshly washed and ironed and smelling of spray sizing, in his left front pocket;
• Blenders full of frozen daiquiris at patio parties in the summer;
• Precise printing and cursive handwriting;
• PGA and LPGA golf on television;
• Church league softball games;
• The scent of Right Guard anti-perspirant;
• A deep, steady heartbeat;
• His favorite song, from his favorite movie:

• The phrase, "I'm just resting my eyes."

I miss him on Father's Day and every day.

Rubber-Necking

The grossest thing I've read about in a very long time?

A 63-year-old woman became 'pregnant' with 12 baby squid after eating calamari, according to a claim in a bio-tech report. 

The real-life 'octo-mum', from South Korea, was eating a portion of cooked whole squid when she felt a sharp pain in her mouth.

The bizarre claim has been made in a scientific paper from the National Center for Biotechnology Information in Bethesda, Maryland. 

The lady told doctors that she could feel something in her mouth which they described as 'bug-like organisms'. 

When examined, the doctors found 'baby cephalopods' attached to her mouth. These are small pods, covered in a cement-like material to make them stick. 

Inside the pods is an 'ejaculatory apparatus' and sperm - with the apparatus expelling the sperm quite forcefully. 

After the victim of the 'attack' was hospitalised, doctors removed the baby cephalopods from her gums, tongue and cheek. It was only then that the pods were formally identified as 'squid spermatophores.'

Eeew! (I'll be having nightmares about this for days.)

In Passing

The boxer who first made me fall in love with the sport has passed away. 

Vaya con Dios, Señor Stephenson...

"And They're Off!"

A gazillion years ago while driving to work I heard a radio ad so funny I should have pulled over because it made me laugh so hard I could barely keep my eyes on the road.

For some reason "And heeeeeeeeeeeeeere coooooooooooooooomes MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANIAC MAN!" ended up romping around in my noggin again tonight. Argh!

I noodled around Google for a while and finally discovered that this was one of several ads in a National Thoroughbred Racing Association campaign called "And They're Off!" I can't find a link to "Golf" (without paying $39 for a month's access to all the ads in the campaign), but I did find this link (scroll down to "Yoga") for the ad that won a Golden Lion award in 2005.

 While I'm at it:

 

Glad to finally be able to prove that I wasn't imagining things.

Engine Knock

Quote of the Day:

"Bitch needs to pull out his payroll sheet and erase the name of the ho who keeps buying his wigs at Leonard Nimoy's yard sale."

Nearly peed myself laughing!

Cuppa Jumpstart

Woke up with this background music to my dream...

Revving The Engine

If Mr. Rogers had to be autotuned, this is a loving and lovely way to do it:



(Yes, a snippet or two in there are a bit creepy, but overall a cool thing.)
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Glad to see there's another warm-hearted, generous person who isn't bamboozled by panhandlers.  For example:

"My brother-in-law works at a hospital and EMS there brought in a 'homeless' man that needed treatment for a minor injury. This man placed his belongings in a hospital locker and among those belongings was $2,367 in singles. He was, as he described it, 'A Professional Panhandler.' He made that figure in two days. That's more than what the doctor treating him makes in two days and he's saving lives and Sh#t."

Seriously, be choosy about your generosity.
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This story just plain pisses me off.  There's a special place in hell for people who steal pets, and I truly hope that bitch karma catches up with this thief.

If you know someone in the Chicagoland area who has just acquired a red Macaw, keep in mind that Sam can say "Nick!" and "I can talk.  Can you fly?"  If you hear those words, you might just recommend that your friend get the bird checked for a microchip -- they may just have purchased a purloined parrot.
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What's the real fallout from the Wisconsin recall election?  According to Peggy Noonan:

"By the way, the single most interesting number in the whole race was 28,785. That is how many dues-paying members of the American Federation of State, County and Municiple Employees were left in Wisconsin after Mr. Walker allowed them to choose whether union dues would be taken from their paychecks each week. Before that, Afscme had 62,218 dues-paying members in Wisconsin. There is a degree to which public union involvement is, simply, coerced."

That's huge.
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Precipitation Ahead

If you can watch this entire video without your eyes moistening, you don't have a beating heart:



Matt W. -- my new hero!
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Update:  Another hero?  You bet.

Street Views...

... both literal and figurative...

... in Althouse's back yard this weekend.  How'd she miss this?